Suck This
by jones2000
Summary: When Ella Swain moves to Fawkes, all she wanted to do was complete highschool. She didn't expect to fall into a war between vampires and vampire hunters. Not to mention the unseen skinwalkers who want everyone off their land...
1. What's your problem, Mister?

**A/N: Riding on the success of Stargate: Australia, here's my latest offering of Twilight, Australian-ised. A few notes before we begin:**

**This parody-ish fic is all in good fun, so if you are a diehard Twilighter, please don't be offended if I happen to poke fun at the more absurd aspects in Twilight. I did the same thing in Stargate: Australia, so if you _are _angry, remember that I'm picking on other fandoms too :) I have planned a twist halfway through, to distinguish it a little further from Ms Meyer's work. So, not quite a _complete_ rip-off.**

**Just so I don't get branded a heretic.**

**And if you have a short attention span like I do, this will hopefully only be a few chapters long.**

**Also, inspired by the If You Were Bella Swan Meme by childofthesea.**

**If you're on Deviantart, have a look.**

* * *

It all started when I said I was going to hitchhike up the coast.

I had hoped that would get some sort of reaction. Something that would indicate that she actually gave a crap about her only daughter. But from where she had passed out on the lounge the previous night, Mum merely rubbed a hand across her gummy eyes and told me to grab her another Ruski before I left.

So I heaved a sigh, got the old woman her booze, grabbed my bag and left.

After spending two hours walking around the old neighbourhood, I managed to find myself a bench that wasn't too covered with bird poop and chewing gum and settled down. Two older men stared at me from across the street and I stared back. I had my pocketknife and my taser, and was fairly confident of my own physical prowess after knocking out Gary the groper during the last school social.

With my oversize sweatshirt and scruffy hair, I looked like a hobo. The sort of teenager that'd beat you to death with a brick before stealing your car.

Apparently other people thought so, too.

"Get a job, trailer trash."

"Bite me, asshat."

I had to wash my hands of this dead-end town before I began selling my organs on the black market to pay the power bills.

The bus pulled up in front of me, and making one final decision, I grabbed my stuff and bought a ticket.

_Watch out, world. Ella Swain is out to getcha._

My enthusiasm waned as soon I was seated on the bus. Somehow, no matter what I did, I always ended up next to the fat guy that smelled like cheese.

I thought about my dad, Chuck. I'd never been on the best terms with my father. Probably because of the fact that he didn't know he even had a kid until my dear old mother hit him up for child support when I was three. When we finally met ten years later, there were no tears or flowery verses. We just stood looking at each other as I realised with a sinking feeling where I got my gangly frame from and he realised with a sinking feeling that there was no way he'd be able to deny paternity.

"I thought you'd be taller." He said.

"So did I." I'd replied.

Then, that was pretty much the extent of our conversation. He was content to stay out of my way and I was perfectly content to stay out of his. It was the perfect parental relationship. Still, I had no way to know what would happen once I turned up on his doorstep in a semi-permanent manner. The most plausible theory was that I'd be welcomed with open arms before being kicked out on my ass in a few months once I'm eighteen and not legally his responsibility anymore.

I had come to the conclusion that some people should not be allowed to breed.

The sign said _Welcome to Fawkes._

Chuck was waiting for me at the bus stop, beside his crappy old company car. Quite honestly, I was surprised that he hadn't told me to go jump the moment I phoned him and told him I was coming. I stared at him through the window of the bus, he with his sparse moustache and thinning hair, the hood of his squad car dented either from hitting a kangaroo or a drunk teenager.

Someone had shot out the back windscreen.

I alighted from the bus, carrying all my worldly possessions in a bag over my shoulder. Chuck gallantly took the bag from me before we proceeded to re-enact our first meeting from years ago.

Finally he broke the staring match and ushered me toward his beat-up old police car. "'Spose I better get you home, then."

"Thanks." I said in a small voice.

The drive to Chuck's place passed in uncomfortable silence after a few comments on the weather and a remark on how unbelievably underfed that I apparently appeared. The next fifteen minutes were the slowest I've ever lived through as I pondered the dirt under my nails.

I had to exclaim aloud when Chuck pulled up in front of a sprawling homestead with a covered pool in the front yard. Dad grinned at me as he watched me press my nose flat against the window like a little kid. "You live here by yourself?"

Chuck gave a small smile. "Not anymore." He said quietly, and he showed me up the front steps.

The bedroom he showed me to whiffed of fresh paint. I could tell the furniture had only been recently assembled as the boxes were still stacked in the corner.

"You knew I'd definitely be coming."

"I thought you might." I was touched that my father had gone to such trouble on account of a 'might'. He rested a large hand on my shoulder and then left me in peace to unpack my meagre belongings.

I sat on the bed, surrounded by a few trinkets from my childhood. And I smiled. Maybe this could be good after all.

I could just smell the beginning of something new.

* * *

Even though the public school's official enrolment periods were early in the New Year and at the end of the last, the school had such a low pupil count that enrolment for new students never officially closed. So, naturally enough, the prodigal daughter of the chief of police was accepted with open arms.

The high school had strict uniform rules, which no one seemed to bother with or enforce, so I turned up for my first day at Fawkes High in ripped blue jeans and a t-shirt in school colours. I felt overdressed in the sea of miniskirts and midriff tops.

After a few minutes, I found a brick building with _Admin _painted on the side. I looked around myself. The younger students were racing around the yard playing handball and soccer in the half hour before the bell, and the older ones were sitting around with lofty expressions trying to look cool while discreetly eyeing the younger students longingly.

I pushed into the administration office.

"Hi. I'm Ella Swain."

"Ah. Constable Swain's daughter." The office lady said nothing else as she handed several documents to me, her expression bored. I blinked. I had expected some sort of reaction for being the bastard daughter of the chief of police, but clearly the lady had heard similar stories many times before. Pursing my lips, I stuffed the papers in my back jeans pocket and went back out to the car Chuck had given me.

My Ford was a decommissioned police patrol vehicle, so it was easily able to reach speeds that weren't marked on the dash. The only real problem with it was a small bullet hole in the right wing mirror, which whistled as I drove. I sat in the carpark, studying the school map. In retrospect, it was rather ineffectual as there were only four blocks of classes, each block clearly marked.

Because of Mum, I had to drop out of school about halfway into my senior year. Therefore I was stuck repeating. But that wasn't too bad, as I pretty much knew all the answers in advance.

Country schools tended to get the hand-me-downs from their counterparts in the cities.

Class pretty much passed in a blur. Hardly any of the teachers noticed that there was a new face in their classes. On the contrary, I'm not sure they would have noticed much as each and every one of them had an almost identical run-down expression of despair on their faces.

One of the girls in my class named Jessie, fondly known by the nickname Phlegm because of some primary school transgression, invited me to sit with her group for lunch. Jessie was one of the artistic people, and she and her mates had established their territory in the memorial gardens, where they could watch other students walk past and make biting, pithy comments.

Honestly, I paid scant attention as Jessie pointed out the major social cliques. Like any High School there were the Sports Freaks, the Pretty People, the Computer Nerds, the Gamers, the Outsiders, the Immature Seventh Graders, the Arty People, the Special Ed. Group and the Usual Suspects. I winced as I glanced at the Usual Suspects table and looked away quickly; least they took my stare as a challenge. My eyes wandered around the room and settled on another group that I hadn't noticed before. My eyes widened and I raised an eyebrow.

There were three boys and two girls, and though they made a show of not actually being together, it was obvious that on some sort of subconscious level they were closer to each other than anyone else in the room.

Sometimes I think about these things too much.

At the end of the table, there was a bulky guy with dark hair wearing a t-shirt perhaps a size too small. His biceps seemed to quiver of their own accord. The next bloke was blonde and lean, though I couldn't help noticing that he was in pretty good shape too. The two girls were practically polar opposites of each other, the blonde girl tall and curvaceous and the dark-haired girl small and pixie-like. I practically _begged _the gods to have given these two beauties some massive personality flaw, simply because it would make mortal women everywhere feel a little bit better about themselves.

The last guy was slimmer and lanky, his long legs crossed under his chair. Great hair; I knew from experience that it took a long time and a lot of hairspray to make hair look that studiously tousled.

They were all so impossibly pale.

"And who are _they_?"

Jessie glanced at where I was looking and her expression turned amused. "Those are the _In-Your-Dreams_ people," She said with a chuckle, opening her can of drink. "That's Eddie and Emmett Collins, and Rosalie and Jasper Gale, and Alice Collins. They're Dr. Collins foster kids." She quirked her eyebrows at me. "Don't bother embarrassing yourself, though. They're all _together_ - Emmett and Rosalie, and Jasper and Alice. It's kind of weird, but you get used to these sorts of things in a small town."

I laughed a little awkwardly, wondering exactly what kind if hick town I had woken up in. My eyes raked over the Collins family once more and in a split second the one with the great hair, Eddie, met my gaze, before dropping it just as quickly, as though he might get contaminated by my commonness.

"Sort of weird," I conceded, and turned back to my lunch, quickly forgetting about the strange family with their untouchable air.

I had planned on wagging Biology entirely, but as the English and Maths head teachers fell into step behind me and Jessie, I reluctantly walked along to class.

I walked into the lab, books under arm and absently chewing the end of a pen. Spying an empty space, I dumped my books on a prep table halfway up the lab and plonked down into the seat, barely glancing at the person I was sharing the desk with.

It was a pity he wasn't inclined to offer me the same level of disinterest.

I happened to glance up from my note-taking halfway through the lesson, glancing past my partner and out the window, like I often did when I was bored out of my skull. Then I focused my eyes back inside the room again, my gaze absently brushing over him.

Eddie Collins was staring unblinkingly at me, something akin to hatred in his dark eyes. It was probably a trick of the light, but his eyes appeared the deepest black. Maybe he had been struck with a particularly nasty thought, and I just happened to be directly in his line of sight at the time. Inwardly, I shrugged. Pretending not to notice, I went back to my work.

The uncomfortable feeling of eyes on the back of my neck ten minutes later made me look up again. This time was no accident, I was certain of it. I pulled my hair back from my face and stared straight back at him, my chin stuck out defiantly. While the teacher was busy with the blackboard, I decided that just because I was the new kid, it didn't mean I had to put up with this kind of crap.

"I'm sorry, is there a reason you're looking at me like I've just eaten your dog?" I hissed angrily. "Does my personal hygiene offend you or something?"

For a moment, Eddie Collins looked like he actually might have been shocked into replying, but then the end of school bell rang. With grace that a teenager shouldn't have been capable of, Mr Great-Hair rose from his seat and left the room, leaving me behind, glaring at his back.


	2. Had you fooled a Little While

"...and he's staring at me like I just crapped on his shoe right in the middle of class."

We all burst out laughing as we walked to the senior carpark.

"Jeez, I seriously thought you must have grabbed him under the table or something," Mick, another friend of Jessie's, grinned at me as he held my car door open for me. I smiled as I waved at Jessie and Angel as they pulled out of the lot.

Mick lent on the top of the car door as I slid onto the seat. "So, Ella..."

"Yeah?" I dropped my keys, and bent down to retrieve them.

"I was thinking..." He began, brows drawn together.

"Wow." I feigned shock. He smirked back.

"I was thinking about the prom."

My head shot up so fast that I bashed myself with the steering wheel.

"Shit!" Wincing, I sat up. Mick was looking at me with his eyebrows raised. "Oh! Not you." I said quickly. Then I recalled his last words. "Wait, prom?"

"Yeah." He raised an eyebrow. "You know, tuxedos, fluffy skirts, gatecrashers, spiked punch and the Geography teacher puking in the bushes."

I didn't know what to say. I had never been invited anywhere before. Mike carried on like he had never noticed my reaction.

"So I was wondering if you'd mind putting in a good word for me with Jessie."

My expectations popped like a balloon.

"Oh." I said. "I guess so."

Mike smiled, letting me close my car door. "Ta, Ella." I leant out the window.

"But if you turn into a sleaze before the ball, this fairy godmother will deny this conversation ever took place."

"You're a mate, Ella." He said. "Listen, a few of us are going down to the reservation at the end of the week, just for a bit of a get together."

"The reservation?"

"Yeah. Old man Black owns the place, but he's pretty cool for an old guy." I vaguely recalled the Black clan. Chuck had mentioned them in his brief history of Fawkes. "As long as we clean up after ourselves, he's got no problem."

"Cool."

"I'll give you a call."

Suddenly I heard a loud engine roar into life somewhere off to the side, and both Mike and myself turned in the direction of the noise. I leant out the window further to see. Who owned the noisy engine surprised me entirely.

Eddie Collins was behind the wheel of a beat-up old pickup that looked like it should have been left in the eighties whence it came. The only thing that stopped me laughing out loud was the fact that the old beast could have sliced through my more modern Ford like it was made of paper.

Eddie didn't spare me a glance as he drove past. Mike snorted.

"With his old man a doctor, you'd think he'd be able to afford something a little more classy than a load of spare parts held together with rust and prayers." He commented. "Catch you 'round, Swain-o."

I didn't sit at that table in biology again. The next day I was waved over to join Jessie and Angel at their table and that unofficially became my spot until the end of the year. I had been fully integrated into the pack. I was actually starting to feel good about myself, and it had been a long time since I could say that.

And then Eddie Collins came back on the scene.

It all started innocently enough, in the line for the cafeteria. We bumped shoulders and I mumbled sorry without looking up.

"It's alright."

It was _him_. I dared a glance at him, gauging his mood. He looked relaxed in t-shirt and jeans, and he eyed me curiously with apparently no hint of his previous antagonism.

"Hi, Ella."

Up until now, I had been fairly confident he had no idea what my name even was. I looked him full in the face, staring straight into those strange eyes.

They were not black, like I had first thought, nor were they brown, hazel or any other variation upon. As a matter of fact, they were the deepest, darkest, most gorgeous _blue _I had ever seen. Coupled with dangerous, dark good looks, instantly Eddie Collins went from being That Asshole to I-Can't-Believe-He's-Actually-Talking-To-Me.

"Hello." I said formally.

"I was looking for you in Biology today."

"I skipped first period. Why, were you looking forward to inflicting some more psychological trauma?"

For a moment his serious expression flickered and he might have even smiled, but I blinked and missed it. The canteen line moved forward minutely.

"I wanted to apologise."

"Okay." I said.

"Okay." He said.

"I'll accept your apology that you were being a jerk and we shall resume the status quo by ignoring the very fact of each other's existence."

There. The conditions whereupon I would accept Eddie's truce. I was routinely attracted to bad boys, but there was something about this guy that set alarm bells off in my head.

"I accept your conditions, madam."

"Truce."

"Truce."

We briefly shook hands to seal the deal, and then I swiftly lost sight of him. I rubbed my chin, my eyes narrowing. Something was going on here, something that merited further research.

And then something even weirder began to happen. Seemingly innocently, Eddie began to turn up at all the places that I came to frequent, and hung around me for longer than I was entirely comfortable with. If I heard another 'Oh, Ella, what a surprise,' I was going to rip his tongue out through his ribcage. I couldn't shake the feeling that he was following me, staking me out sizing me up. In my mind the youngest Collins brother fit the stereotype of a serial killer a little _too_ well, and the image of being stuffed into a barrel of acid and left to slowly decompose was never far from my thoughts.

It was Jessie that gave me the idea when I shared my woes. "Well, why don't you counter-stalk?"

I couldn't believe how brilliant the idea was, and how it had managed to allude me for so long. I decided I was going to be a counter-stalker.

I was going to find out who the Collins' family were.

So, between assignments and papers, that week I began to amass every scrap of information about the Collins family that I could find. Public honours Carl Collins had been awarded, sporting presentations Emmett had received, acknowledgement to contributions to art for Alice, and even cooking prizes for Esme Collins. Every new piece of information lead to the looming conclusion that they were the perfect Brady Bunch blended family.

I could smell a rat.

But from the smattering of information I was able to locate, I had managed to cobble together a rough timeline.

Dr Collins had moved the family to Fawkes from Canberra two years ago, and that in itself was highly suspicious as he left a high paid specialist position in the city to become a GP in the country. He wasn't Esme's first husband, and the lady of the house seemed content with the life they now lead, immersing herself in the Country Women's Association and town activities.

The couple seemed entirely too wholesome to be real.

The kids were a different story entirely. Alice was the artistic rebel, and had taken part in several student protests since she started school. Emmett and Rosalie were both all attitude, and although they were good students, the pair of them were known for telling off the people they had a problem with. Jasper was in a world of his own, studious and distancing himself from most people aside from Alice.

I could barely find anything out about Eddie. It seemed that the whole time he had been in Fawkes, he hadn't done anything remarkable or stood out in any way. I even resorted to peeking at my father's police rap sheets, but apparently my stalker was also incredibly boring.

I sat at my desk staring at Eddie's rap sheet, my eyes tired. I scratched my head, and absently moving Chuck's last police incident report beside it. I leant back, crossing my hands behind my head, not really expecting anything to emerge. I looked down for a moment. And then I _looked_.

"Oh my God," I gasped.

For the last two years, at least, an average of five Fawkes residents had been reported missing roughly every two months. _Thirty _people a year. But that wasn't what froze me to my seat.

Each incident corresponded _exactly_ with the frequent trips the Collins family took away from Fawkes.

I stared at the papers, horrified, pictures of bodies stuffed in barrels dancing through my head.

That night was the night of the party.

I popped another soda open. New Girl had been unanimously selected to be the designated driver for this function. As most of my peers were well on their way to getting hammered, I praised Chuck's brilliance in suggesting to cover the seats with sheets of plastic before I left the house.

I stood up, drink in hand, stepping over some of the prone-but-breathing forms of my classmates. You wouldn't believe it now, but it had actually started as a reasonably tame get-together. But then the younger people of the reservation dropped in to see what we were doing, and the elder ones among them brought beer.

Approve or not, it was easy to guess what would happen next. I sat down near a dark-skinned boy who I noticed had been resolutely sticking the soft drinks the whole night.

"Hi. I'm Ella Swain."

He glanced at me, and flashed a smile. "Jack Black." He said. "Cute and deadly."

I liked him immediately.

As we talked about random, unimportant things, the party formed itself into a ring about the fire, and one by one my group of friends began telling each other scary stories that they had apparently had not grown out of yet. Each trying to spook the others.

About halfway through a ripping yarn about wraithlike vampires and swashbuckling werewolves, Jack snorted with something akin to contempt. I turned my attention back to him. "You have something better, Wolf Man?" I asked, semi-seriously.

Jack gave a cheeky smile. "You bet your sweet ass I do."

That was when he stood up and clapped his hands to get everybody's attention. I grabbed at his shirt to try and get him to sit down, but he just grinned at me and winked.

"Thanks for your attention, everybody." He began. "Not to interrupt the festivities, but I just realised that Ella hasn't been here very long. She doesn't know our ways. Shouldn't we tell her the _true_ history of the town? The shockingly supernatural aspects and all?" Jack was cheered on. I covered my eyes.

"It all began before Fawkes was even a town." Jack's voice rang out through the trees. "Many a bloody skirmish was fought upon these lands, but there was one ongoing battle that had cost more lives than any other."

Although all the others had doubtless heard this urban legend before, they all sat with baited breath, waiting for Jack to speak. "This war was between the lycanthropes and the vampires."

I let my breath out in a whoosh. A cute, younger man, and he probably has posters of Buffy all over his bedroom walls. Just my luck.

"It was a time where men lived by the sword and died by the sword. Many lives were lost, and not just those of the two warring races. These armies would have fought to the last man, the last child, but in the end it was not either werewolf or vampire that won. It is said that since then Fawkes has been a safe haven for beasts of the supernaturally inclined."

"Who won?" I asked, but my question was drowned out in the sudden rushing of conversation. Jack bowed with a flourish, grinned at me once more, and then vanished among the trees.

I sat there, among my friends, unbearably alone, certain that Jack had been trying to pass me on a message of some kind. Or perhaps I was just being paranoid.

And then it hit me.

Impossibly pale for living under the Australian sun, the I-will-disembowel-you looks, the lack of records, the searing eyes on the back of my neck, like he was looking for the right place to bite...

* * *

One could not mistake the sound of Eddie's truck for that of anything else. I waited by the gate, armed with all I knew. The town _reeked _of mystery, and I was seriously hoping that I had figured part of it out.

Eddie got out, gave a casual wave to his sister Alice, and then proceeded up the front steps, where I was quick to accost him.

"Eddie."

He looked up at me. I couldn't read his expression, but something akin to fear flashed through those dark blue eyes. "Ella."

"Could I have a word?"

"Um..." He stepped away from school a little. For the first time I had met him, he actually looked a little awkward. As soon as he felt sure that no one was watching us, he turned his attention back on me. "Okay."

"I think I've figured out what this is about." I began. I could tell by his face that he was still playing the confused card.

"What what is about?" He asked.

I snorted disbelievingly. "You."

"Me?"

"Following me about, trying to put me off the scent."

"The scent of _what_?"

"Don't tell me you don't know about the disappearing people. Why are you stalking me?" I demanded.

"_What_?" He exclaimed. "Ella, this is a town of three thousand people, of _course _you're going to see the same people more than you'd like."

I was going to get to the bottom of this, even if I had to kick it out of him. "You've been following me around!" I accused. "Staking me out like you're figuring out the best angle of attack."

"Don't be rid-"

"_What are you?!_"

Finally something inside Eddie snapped. He seized my wrist and pulled me behind the gym. "You want to know what I am? Fine." He said through gritted teeth. "But first, _you_ tell me what _you _are, you with your eyes that change colour all the time, and your weird mood swings, why you can pluck thoughts out of other people's heads, and why, _why _does everyone in the school adore you when you've only been here a week?"

He released my wrist. His grip would have bruised a normal person. I stood there, horrified, knowing that in trying to uncover his secrets, he had uncovered mine.

"You know what I am." Eddie said in an ugly voice. "And I know what _you _are. You are scum."

He turned and walked away, leaving me alone with my thoughts.

The Collins family weren't vampires like I had originally thought, originally hoped.

They were vampire _hunters. _

And, quite frankly, I was scared to death.

_Hi, I'm Ella Swain, and I'm a vampire._


	3. The Plot Thickens

_If there is in this world, a well attested account, it is that of the vampires. Nothing is lacking: official reports, affidavits of well known people, of surgeons, of priests, of magistrates; the judicial proof is most complete. And with all that, who is there that believes in vampires?_

"He's looking at you again."

"Well, don't look back!" I snapped, biting into my pie a little harder than I should have, spraying gravy and sauce everywhere.

"Are you nuts, Ella?" Jessie ogled at me. "Eddie Collins is the best looking guy in school!"

Mike sniffed. "I'm trying hard not to look insulted."

"Just... don't look. Pretend you don't see. That asshole."

Jessie sighed. "Whatever."

Winter seemed to sneak up on us all, so one moment we were trying our hardest not to melt, and the next we were watching icicles form on the tips of our noses.

Unlike my old home, it didn't snow in Fawkes, but it became so bitterly cold that if you stood in the same place for too long, you would literally be frozen to the spot. Black ice slicked every tarred surface, and it was practically impossible to reach the front of the school without taking a dive at least once. I knew this because I was the first person to pick myself off the asphalt of the parking lot, my ego more bruised than my butt.

Apparently my catlike reflexes only engaged when they felt like it.

You probably think vampires aren't affected by the cold. I knew I used to think that, but the fact is, we are. Pretty bad, actually. We get sluggish and dim, slowing down to the pace where normal people start to wonder what the hell is wrong with us. Why? As a vampire is dead, we're essentially cold-blooded. This means that if we could, we'd pass the day happily sunning ourselves on rocks like lizards to heat ourselves up. The blood still needs to move about the body a bit, so it doesn't congeal in our veins and our extremities don't drop off.

I've seen this happen before. It's not pleasant.

So there I was, soldiering along, and the only person who knew what was wrong with me I was expecting to jump out at me from behind the next tree with a stake. Hugging my parka tight around me, I reluctantly left the heated warmth of my car, making sure to plant my feet firmly on the ground before I stood up. A few cars down from me, I could make out Eddie leaning against his truck, sharing an animated conversation with Alice, which seemed to involve much laughing and hand-waving. In a way, I was unbelievably jealous of what they had. The world was in black and white for the Collins, and I missed the definite line between good and evil.

I wondered why he hadn't told his sister about me yet.

I was standing in front of my open car door, staring out into the distance, when I picked up the sound of a high pitched screeching, a sound which became alarmingly louder in a small amount of time. My eyes fell back to earth and my mouth fell open.

Streaking across the parking lot was a dented old egg-yellow van. The driver was leaning on the horn to get people out of the way while he wrestled uselessly with the controls.

I watched the vehicle skidding across the ice heading in my direction, but for some reason I had been rendered immobile.

They say a vampire can only be killed in certain ways, but I wasn't entirely confident with testing out that theory.

"Get out of the way, you moron!" It was Eddie's voice, and it somehow reached me over the roar. I blinked.

At the very last possible moment, I made a dive and rolled, hands over my head, as the driver wrenched the wheel away from me. From the spot where I was on my hands and knees, the events of a microsecond unfolded in slow motion.

The van spun completely out of control, and began to careen wildly toward Eddie's truck. Acting on pure instinct, Eddie grabbed his sister by the shoulders and roughly pushed her out of the way. Alice reached out her hand to help him.

Eddie slipped on the ice.

I watched the van bearing down on him, not moving. My eyes were cold and calculating.

_If Eddie Collins dies today, I'm safe again._

I was on my feet in seconds. Before I had time to too closely analyse my actions, I launched myself across several car bonnets, my ass swiftly becoming soggy. When I seized Eddie's collar, he looked at me like he'd seen a ghost.

The front of the van smashed into the side of the truck's cabin, showering us both with glass. For a moment I thought that was it, and then I looked up and saw the back end of the van rushing up to meet us. Eddie and I both swore. Closing my eyes, I turned my back to the oncoming vehicle, begging that this would work. I could feel Eddie's breath on my face.

"What are you trying to prove?" He breathed.

And then the van hit us. Again.

I must have blacked out for a second but I snapped back to consciousness fairly quickly. There was an unbelievable pressure bearing down on my spine where the metal alloy of the van had folded around me. I wriggled my shoulders, popping out of the wreck, which groaned. My next thought turned to punctured petrol tanks and massive explosions, and I anxiously tugged at Eddie's jacket.

He was groggy, and there was blood in his eyes, but the two of us still managed to crawl under his truck and out the other side.

"Ella! Eddie!" The principal was bending over us, looking anxious. Jessie was on her phone, talking urgently to someone. The school staff shepherded us all away from the carpark as firemen ascertained that neither the tank of the truck nor the tank of the van were about to ignite, and then an ambulance trundled up the front entrance.

Even though Eddie and I insisted we were fine, we were bundled off to the local hospital, along with the poor guy that Mike and his mates had managed to drag from behind the wheel. If I had thought Eddie had been in a bad mood before, then this turn took my completely by surprise. There was a downright homicidal glint in those amazing blue eyes and each word he said to me was filled with barely contained hatred.

I withdrew into myself.

My dad and Eddie's adoptive father were waiting for us. Eddie's bad mood evaporated the very moment Doctor Carl Collins told him sternly to act his age.

Dr Collins was tall and blonde and _very _easy on the eyes. He was only young, but moved about the small hospital like a consummate professional. He also seemed friendly, which was a plus. Still, my stomach squicked uncomfortably. _Vampire hunters_, I kept reminding myself.

Finally Chuck intervened and told Dr Collins that if he couldn't find anything to keep me on, he was going to take me home.

That night was the first time I really thought of Eddie. I knew with utmost certainty that he didn't hate _me_, per se, but what I _was._ And that in turn got me thinking on the subject. Why did Eddie _hate _vampires so much?

I fell into a restless slumber, and had the weirdest dream. I was running through the lands on the edge of the reservation, moving with a grim determination and at a speed that I had not thought possible.

However, I woke up before I found out whether I was being pursued, or the pursuer.

Everyone treated me like a hero when I next turned up at school, though I wasn't sure I deserved it. I kept a watch for Eddie, but that day neither he nor his family turned up for classes. I made a mental note to keep an eye on the papers for any sudden disappearances.

Somehow I was roped into a pre-emptive dress shopping spree for the prom. Even though Chuck assured me he was fine with me going, and that I might even have fun, the whole notion weirded me out. I'd always been the tomboy, the one rolling about in the mud with grazed knees. I hadn't even worn a dress to my cousin's wedding.

So after the main event was mostly over and I had added my two cents to the opinions Jessie and Angel had already formed about their frocks, I mentioned that I'd spotted a bookstore on the way down and I'd find my way to the restaurant later.

I had no intention of doing any shopping that night, instead I walked down the street, hands in my pockets, the streetlights getting progressively dimmer and further apart. I needed some air, something to wash Fawkes away for even a little while.

But really, what I wanted was something I could hit. Over and over.

I knew I was being followed before they knew I knew. My night vision and hearing had been finely tuned before I became a vampire. I caught fragments of images radiating off them, and all that did was make me angry.

"Hi, sweetie." The first Big Ugly said. I didn't dignify that with a remark. In the city, I had bigger and meaner guys cowering in the corner the moment I entered the room. Still, best not to tempt fate.

I could _smell _blood and pain on him.

"Why are you out here all alone, sugar?" His breath was rancid.

"Just waiting for you, handsome." I said sweetly. And then I brought my knee up into his groin.

"Ahhh..."

"Was it good for you, too?" I whispered fiercely as he fell to his knees.

It bothered me, how much I enjoyed kicking these perverts' butts. I was about to sucker-punch one of them in the throat when suddenly I was bathed in two pools of light. A car had stopped in the middle of the street, and we all froze, stuck in a bizarre pantomime.

Someone tall with great hair stepped out the driver's side door and shielded his eyes against the light.

"Ella?"

"Hi, Eddie." I said somewhat sheepishly.

"What the _hell _are you doing?" He demanded.

"What the hell are _you_ doing?" I retorted.

"Let that guy go." He said firmly, and I did. My would-be molester limped away from me as fast as he could, gathering together his mates and making a waddle for it.

"Woman's crazy. Woman's freaking nuts!"

"Shit, man, let's get out of here!"

I slowly walked toward Eddie as he stood stock still. I could see a neat row of stitches cutting through his eyebrow where he had been sliced by flying glass. It looked painful, but I surmised that he was used to physical pain. I stopped just in front of him. In the darkness, his eyes seemed just as black as gthe first time I saw him. "Hi." I said.

"Hi."

"Those guys, they were going to..." I began, suddenly filled with a need to explain.

"I know." He said. His features suddenly looked faintly amused. "I think you've taught them a very important lesson about defenceless girls." He looked at me a moment longer. "Do you need a lift?"

Taken by surprise, I accepted. "Aren't you a bit concerned about getting into a car with Vampirella?"

Eddie merely cocked an eyebrow, and his answer was logical. "If you bite me, you have no ride."

"True." I conceded, rubbing my neck.

We were almost at the restaurant where I was supposed to meet the girls when my phone buzzed in my pocket.

"Hi, Jess. What? Ew, that's disgusting. You two all right? No, that's cool. Hold on a minute,"

"Problem?" Eddie enquired.

"Bad clams." I said. "They're at the doctor's. Jessie's mum and dad are gonna pick them up, drive the other car home." I paused. "Can I have a ride home? I need a yes or no in twelve seconds."

"Well, um..."

"Nine."

He looked flustered. "I... guess."

I turned back to my mobile. "No, I'm right. Your dad hasn't got to pick me up. Yeah, see you soon."

"Do you always talk this much?" Eddie demanded as I hung up the phone.

I quirked an eyebrow. "We've got a _looong _hour stretching before us, cowboy. You haven't seen nothing yet."

Eddie heaved a massive sigh.

Fifteen minutes later, and we were already verbally sparring like we'd known each other forever. Though I noticed Eddie's smiles were too fixed, his laughs a little too forced. He was still guarded, and I wasn't sure that I'd be able to make him ever see vampires in a different light.

"So what's with the mind reading?" He asked casually.

I was hanging my arm out the window, feeling the cold air slip through my fingers. "How do you mean?" I asked absently.

"Just anyone?"

"Mostly."

"Me?"

I turned to look at him, my brows lowering. "How can _I _read your mind, when _you_ can't even read your mind?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Ed, you're incredibly hot, but you're also incredibly indecisive." I said sternly. "Anyway, most people... _shout out _what they're thinking." I tried to explain. "You're more careful."

"That's good?"

"It makes you interesting."

"Interesting. I can live with interesting."

"My turn." I said. "What happened to your parents? Your real ones?" This question had been burning in my mind for a long time.

Eddie immediately became reserved once more. "They died. When I was still a kid. Carl and Esme were my godparents, so they took me in."

"That was good of them." I said softly.

"Yes." He said. "How old are you?"

"Seventeen and nine months." I responded immediately.

"For how long?"

"Nine months." I said. "I don't really know what happened." I confessed for the first time. "It was a few months ago, at this frat party. I got drunk. I mean _really _drunk_._ The next thing I know, I can do a Superman with a bus."

"That's messed up."

"_You're _supposed to be the big vamp expert." I pointed out.

"Vampires don't wither in the sun." Eddie confessed. "Sleeping in coffins is out..."

"Actually, I _did _once know a guy..."

"Do you sleep?"

"I don't _need_ to sleep. But it passes the time."

"Breathing?"

"Ditto." I said. I glanced sideways. "It surprises me that you don't seem to be worried about my diet."

"You smell faintly of copper and you've got animal hair on your shirt. Officer Swain doesn't own any animals." He said matter-of-factly.

"Why haven't you killed me?"

We were at my house sooner than I had hoped. He gave me a little grin and parroted my earlier words back to me.

"Because you're interesting."

I opened the door and was about to slide out when Eddie's hand caught my wrist. His long fingers were delightfully warm against my cooling skin.

"Get out of town." He told me solemnly.

"What?" I was completely bemused. "Why?"

"Because I like you, Ella." His face was deadly serious. "You're different."

I stood staring after him, watching his taillights fade off into the distance.


	4. And The Weird Keeps On Coming

_About three things I was absolutely positive. First, Eddie was a vampire hunter. Second, there was part of him, and I wasn't sure how potent that bit was, that wanted to thrust a stake through my heart. And third, I was absolutely fascinated with him._

All open hostilities officially ceased after that ride, and even though we did snipe at each other in the corridors, I was kind of enjoying having Eddie as a friend.

My _other_ friends, however, acted like I was dating a serial killer.

"He's all wrong for you." Jessie's vehement reaction surprised me, when not that long ago she had been practically drooling on Eddie's shoes. But that was when I was certain I hated him

"Are you kidding me? Hot, smart, and owns his own transport. Yes, please."

For me, the rest of the day seemed to pass in a daze as I vainly searched for the source of Eddie's _get out of town_. He refused to tell me outright, no matter how much I bugged him. It was as if he thought that he kept me separate from whatever was bothering him, I would somehow not become involved.

Whatever was going on was centred around the thirty missing people. I was sure of that.

When I got home that night, Chuck was out. He'd left a note on the table saying he wouldn't be back until late. So I bummed around the house for a few hours before climbing into my pyjamas and parking myself in front of the TV. Chuck didn't have cable, so I wasn't exactly spoiled for choice.

And then suddenly a scary thought hit me. I was a vampire. And judging from the events earlier that month, I had an extremely good chance of living forever. Which meant long lifetimes stretched before me where there would be nothing to do except sit in front of the television and surf through channels where there was nothing to watch anyway.

Oh, the horror.

I threw the remote across the room and lent back on my forearms. Just then, someone knocked on the front door.

I glanced at the clock, hoping they'd go away. Who in their right mind would come calling at a quarter past ten at night? Whoever it was knocked on the door louder. They could see my car, and knew someone was home. I sighed.

"Yeah, I'm comin'." I bellowed, and the knocking ceased.

My hand was on the door when I looked down at myself: oversize Bart Simpson pyjamas, bright footie socks pulled up to my knees, and a pink fluffy thing holding my fringe out of my eyes. Hardly Kate Beckinsale in a pleather catsuit.

Mike and Jessie were standing on my doorstep. I wondered at the fact how they had suddenly seemed so much older. There was a manic glint in Mike's eyes that I had somehow never noticed before, and Jessie seemed wired, bouncing up and down on the tips of her toes.

"It's a bit late, isn't it?" I began cautiously, thinking that maybe there was some sort of weird initiation ceremony before I could officially be one with Fawkes.

I hoped they'd at least let me grab my pants.

"Come with us." Mike said firmly, in a very un-Mike-like way.

"It's time." Jessie added. I stepped back. In horror movies, this was the bit where they either dragged me away by my hair or knifed me to death.

I held out my hands in front of me.

"Okay, guys, I have no idea what you're talking about. Time for what?"

"To meet the Fawkes council." Mike gave an enigmatic smile, and I noticed that his teeth were very white, his canines slightly longer than they should have been. I ran my tongue over my own unnaturally sharp teeth. "The Others want to meet you."

"The other whats?" I whispered.

Jessie grinned, and for the first time really noticed her teeth as well. And then I realised.

How could I have been so _stupid?_

_Of _course_ I wasn't the only vampire in town._

"The others like us." She said.

As they waited, I swiftly shimmied into my jeans and sneakers, ran a brush through my hair, and then Jessie and Mike bundled me into the backseat of a shiny silver Volvo. I sat in the middle of the back seat, peering anxiously through the windscreen. I wasn't sure I wanted to meet Fawkes' council of vampires.

"So you're both vampires?" I hedged carefully. I swear I hadn't noticed anything unusual about them, but then, it's rude to read your friends' minds. I'd found that out the hard way in the city.

"Yup." Mike said.

"You don't look like vampires." It was an automatic statement, and even as I said it I realised how stupid I sounded.

Mike's lips quirked in a grin, and he glanced at me in the rear-view mirror. "Sorry, darlin', I left my cape in my other coffin."

Jessie laughed. Even her laugh was different now she didn't have to worry about giving herself away. "You're hardly an Anne Rice advertisement yourself, Ella."

I caught the reflection of myself in the mirror. In torn jeans and a jumper that had holes in it, I looked anything _but _the glamorous image the media had of us.

"How many vampires are there in Fawkes?" I asked curiously. I paused, a more perplexing question coming to mind. "What about the Collins family? Do they know about you?"

Jessie's eyebrows rose. "I was beginning to think you didn't know about the Collins'." She exclaimed. "If you know, why do you keep hanging around with Eddie Collins?"

After a moment of thought, I answered slowly.

"Because he's different."

Jessie sniffed.

"How old are you?" Mike asked curiously.

I knew the routine. "Seventeen and nine months. I've been a vampire for those nine months." I added.

Mike glanced at Jessie. "She's only young. Small transgressions can be forgiven."

"What transgressions?" I asked aggressively, scowling.

I could tell by the way her lip curled that Jessie was starting to sulk. I stared at the back at Mike's head, marvelling at how different he seemed. The class clown was gone, replaced by someone who was more mature and much more in charge.

"How old are _you_?" I asked.

"Twenty."

"How old have you been twenty?"

His smile seemed so much more scary now. "A while."

I folded my arms, chewing my bottom lip. Then something small and stupid occurred to me, but it was a rather burning question.

"Just curious, but if you're vampires, and immortal and whatever, _why _are you going to school?" I asked. Personally, the thought of vampires in high school explained a lot to me.

"You'd be surprised how much things change in two hundred years," Mike said idly. "One must stay up to date with current knowledge."

Jessie turned around and peered over her headrest. Suddenly she was schoolgirl-Jessie again. "Sometimes we swap with a couple in Perth so we can go to college and get jobs. Then we swap over when we can't pass for thirty-year-olds anymore." Jessie had the kind of face that could be made up to look ten years older and Mike had the measured wisdom of an older man, so I could easily believe that.

"Why?"

"So no one gets suspicious, Ella."

"But the Collins'," I persisted.

"Soon." Mike said. He pulled the car over. "Last stop, everybody out."

I stepped out, pulled my jeans up, and then looked up at the building. I blinked. This was the primary school downtown. There was a sign in front of the office.

_Student Council Meeting Tonight._ I raised an eyebrow and looked at Mike.

"Student council?"

"What were you expecting? Streamers and banners and someone handing out pamphlets?"

It grated on my nerves, the way he spoke to me like I was a moron. "You know, I liked you better as an idiot." My eyes narrowed.

"A lot of people say that." Mike observed. He strode up the steps before us, pushing the doors aside. I felt the butterflies in my stomach start up again.

"Don't worry about him; he's just in a mood." Jessie whispered. "He used to be a doctor in the 1800s and I think he thinks pretending to be a teenager is demeaning his intelligence." She reached out to take my hand. "Hey, you're not supposed to be nervous." She seemed to sense my emotional turmoil, and somehow her touch made me feel a little better. "You're about to become one of us."

Ominous. "I'm still not sure what you mean by that, exactly."

There was another sign in the hallway. _Welcome, New Members. _I tried not to giggle inappropriately as Mike ushered us into the assembly hall.

I marvelled at the faces I saw swing towards us. Some I recognised and most I didn't. But what made me gasp was the sheer number of people in the hall. And then I noticed a man walking towards us, me, and my eyes focused on his face.

"_Dad?!_"

For the first time since I got myself bitten, I felt sick, dizzy. My father, Chuck, a vampire? But as he reached me, he stretched out his arms and for the very first time he folded me into a great bear hug and I clung to him, trying to absorb in that one moment all the paternal affection I had been denied my whole life.

"My poor girl." He stroked my hair affectionately.

His body was warm, and his heart beat solidly against my chest. I could hear the blood that rushed through his veins. I looked up into his tired, worn face.

"You're not a vampire?"

"No, Ella." He said softly.

"Then why-?"

Someone cleared their throat at the head of the hall, seeming to make it clear in that one note that we were the ones holding up proceedings. There was a man standing on the stage, resting on the podium as if it was the only thing holding him up. He was stooped and withered with massive purple rings under his eyes and looked about a billion years old. He looked at me, with piercing amber eyes.

"If you could take a seat, Officer Swain, Miss Swain?" He nodded respectfully at Jessie and Mike. "Doctor Newman, Mrs Newman, thank you for bringing Miss Swain to us."

I stared at Jessie, eyes wide. "_Mrs Newman_?"

Jessie gave a small smile. "Long story."

The fossil on stage was still talking. "...the last thing we need at this present moment is a feral running around town." I bristled as Chuck took my hand and lead me to our seats. Jessie followed us as Mike joined the relic on stage.

"We're all here." Mike's voice rang out across the hall. "The ones of us that are left, anyway. I pains me, to see how little of us are left."

One hand in Chuck's and the other in Jessie's, I leant forward to hear everything that was being said at this vampire council.

Mike took the old bloke's place behind the podium. His brow was furrowed and his lips were pressed into a hard line. "My people, and other sympathisers." He began, inclining his head to Chuck. "Thank you all for coming so quickly. As you may have guessed, this is not a social call to see how we are all coping with our respective hungers."

He paused for effect, ever the showman.

"This is a Council of War."

A murmur passed through the gathered witnesses, but my mouth was suddenly dry. I could not have formed words even if I had known what to say.

Mike stared around the room, tawny eyes capturing the attention of each and every onlooker. I marvelled at his charisma. Not one person looked away from him.

And then he said the words I had been fearing.

"Vampires of Fawkes, the Collins family must die."

I sat there, not sure of what I should do next. Despite Mike's big words, it soon became apparent that no matter how hard he tried to convince the crowd, this was really just the bi-annual meeting of the Fawkes Vampire Support Group. I sat up straighter in my chair, craning my head this way and that to try and take in everything at once.

Two women who looked no less than eighty sat in the corner chatting away like they were at Bingo. There was an emancipated man in the row in front of me that was twitching uncontrollably like he was being pricked with hundreds of invisible pins. Neither he nor the women looked like they could bite through a particularly hard biscuit.

_These_ were the fearsome vampires of Fawkes? Then it occurred to me that these were the vampires that had run away. The ones that had turned against their vampirism in the hope of being able to become something better.

There was a strange-looking child sitting cross-legged on the edge of the stage, close to Mike and the other, immensely old vampire. She stood out immediately as the only child in the room, and my gaze focused on her. Curling, bronze-ish hair tumbled delicately over pale, slender shoulders, and her eyes were brown, like mine used to be.

There was something strangely sinister about her and I had to wrench my eyes away.

Mike's eyes were on me, his gaze unwavering. I wanted to stand. I wanted to jump to my feet and demand what he was doing, when it was obvious to me that none of these people would be strong enough or courageous enough for what he had planned. There was no one here that even _looked_ tough enough to take on a vampire hunter, except-

Me.


	5. What am I Supposed to do Now?

**AN: Merry Christmas, all**

* * *

_So the lion fell in love with the lamb._

_And then the lamb shot him._

* * *

Most of all, Mike's gathering was to allay the fears of the weaker, to reassure them that the people in charge actually intended to do something. Finally, the tediousness was done, and I remained seated as the meeting broke up and the others slowly filed out, after deferring respectfully to Mike, the old man, and the little girl.

Yours truly, Chuck, Jessie, Mike, the man and the girl remained.

I was about to meet the _real _Fawkes council.

"Greetings, Ella." Said the little girl formally, sounding like every demonic child in every scary movie I had ever seen. She gave a graceful little curtsey. "I am Inez Blackstone. And this is my associate, Spencer Harrington."

The old man's chest puffed up as soon as she mentioned his name, and I knew immediately that he was one of those people who were inordinately proud of themselves for doing not that much at all. While Inez wore a plain white dress with ballet flats, Spencer's outfit was more turn-of-the-century. Black and silver embroidered frock coat over a ruffled shirt, black pants with silver trim, and shiny, shiny boots. With his snowy white hair, too-skinny frame and bulging eyes, he might as well have been wearing a sign around his neck saying _I'm A Vampire._

"Pleasure to meet you." Despite his ancient and somewhat stooped frame, the voice that came out of that withered husk was surprisingly rich and resonant. "You have already met the doctor and his wife."

Jessie shot me a little grin and a wave. My dad stood behind my chair, towering over me protectively.

"Yeah, we've met." So far, my emotions had undergone a roller coaster ride through caution, anxiousness, anxiety, and amazement. Right now, I was settled on suspicion.

"What am I doing here?"

"As I said, at this moment in time, it is far too dangerous for a feral to be about town." Spencer stated.

"Oh." A pause. "What's a feral?"

Spencer Harrington looked at me like I was stupid, and blinked.

"A feral is used much in the same context when dealing with animals; it is one of our kind who has struck out on their own, away from the influence of their sire." Inez said.

I must have continued to look somewhat confused, as Spencer felt obliged to elaborate, obviously running on the idea that I was a bit simple.

"The sire is that who makes us. It is the sire that is responsible for our frame of mind when we awake again."

My blank look remained firmly fixed in place. Spencer looked down his nose at me, tapping his chin.

"You are aware of your sire, aren't you, Ella?" Inez asked me seriously.

I fidgeted uncomfortably in my seat. "Well, um..." I stammered. "I kind of got really drunk at this party..."

Suddenly I was met with a room full of disapproving glares, all except Inez, who was contemplating something.

"Oh, come on! Like you lot never had a few beers as teenagers! Is it a crime?"

"Yes, actually." Chuck said archly, his face stern, ever the police chief. "You were seventeen, and underage, and-"

I almost choked on his hypocrisy. "Do as I say and not as I do, eh, Father?" I said icily. After all, my very existence was the result of young people, alcohol, and too many hormones.

Inez was staring at me with those unnerving eyes. "Curious." She murmured. "I have never before heard of a sire abandoning their fledgling."

I just looked at her blankly, the notion of vampire family values going over my head.

"Abandoned to wake alone after the turning, unsure of how to act or what to do next, left to discover your abilities to yourself. It is no wonder-" Her eyes raked over me again. "It is no wonder why you are... different."

"Why am I here?" I repeated slowly, wondering if anyone would just give me a damn answer.

"We need your spirit." Spencer said grandly. "That feisty little spark inside you that gives you the strength that has abandoned the rest of us. We need your street smarts, your attitude, and your determination." He leaned over me, hands gripping the arms of my chair so I could not escape.

"We need you because you can pass as a human."

I squirmed past Spencer and his hypnotic, bulging eyes, and stood apart from them all, hands on my hips. "What about _him_?" I indicated Chuck with a nod of my head. "Nothing passes for human better than a human."

"He is not applicable for this mission." Inez said curtly. Chuck looked down at his shoes.

"Excuse me, what?" I was definitely getting conscripted for something.

"The doctor has brought it to our attention that you have become close to Eddie Collins."

_Fantastic._

"That was not idle talk, Miss Swain. We intend to... remove the Collins family." Inez's eyes were cold. "And you will be instrumental in that downfall."

Mike stepped back in. "In short, Ella, the last of us here were fanged in the eighties, and, quite frankly, time has changed since then. Because of your recent turning, and your minimal exposure to other vampires due to your environment, _you _are the only one of us who can convincingly pass as normal."

"_Why me_?"

"Because of your relationship with Eddie Collins."

"It's not a relationship." I said, but Mike carried on as though he hadn't heard me.

"For years we have tried to get one of our people under the Collins' guard, but all our agents have been neutralised. But somehow you have already become accepted. You can get close to the family, pinpoint their weak spots, pass on their tactics."

"You want me to... be your spy."

Mike nodded. "Gain the family's trust." Inez said. "Get yourself as physically and emotionally close to the Collins boy as possible, and then-"

The little girl made a savage slashing motion across her throat.

I gulped.

The next day Chuck dropped me at school, mainly so we could talk. Or rather, he talked.

I felt like I had fallen into a badly written supernatural drama as he described how the vampires and townsfolk of Fawkes had lived peacefully beside each other for over two hundred years. From the information he'd managed to glean from vamps of the same antiquity, originally there had been a pretty big bloodbath between the vampire settles and the local tribe of skinwalkers, over rights to the land.

A lot of innocent townsfolk had been caught up in the middle, when news of the skirmish caught the attention of a drover, one Tobias Harker. Apparently Toby wasn't a hunter in the strictest sense, but rather used his brain to stop the war, drawing up a treaty that flatly stated that if another supernaturally-related homicide occurred in the town from that day forth, Toby was coming back and he was bringing some mates with him to wipe everybody out.

From that day, there was always at least one vampire hunter in town.

And then people began disappearing. Since no one had heard from the skinwalkers for decades, there was only one conclusion: the vampire hunters were slaying again unprovoked, and all bets were off.

I stared through the window, leaning on my forearm, letting his words wash over me. A feeling of guilt smacked me upside the head as I saw Eddie's truck parked in his usual spot, the first time he'd been in for a fortnight.

Chuck wordlessly dropped me at the gate. Backpack slung over one shoulder, I casually strode over to the truck.

Eddie was kneeling on the driver's seat, pinning the ceiling upholstery back into place with a red stapler. His hair wasn't quite so great today and his cheeks were hollower, but all that did was make me realise how amazing his cheekbones were. The boy had got a double dose of good genes.

So engrossed was he in his work that he didn't hear me approach.

"Hi." I said.

Eddie jumped, smacking his forehead on the truck's ceiling. I heard a muffled curse as the flap of upholstery he had been stapling up fell back to the dash.

"Oops. Sorry."

Eddie looked down at me, a hand on his forehead.

"How come whenever I see you, my head ends up ringing?"

"Maybe you're stunned by my charm and grace?" I offered smoothly. He smiled at me, and I wondered if he knew exactly how devastating those dimples could be when aimed in the right place. I smiled back, but inside my common sense was locked in a death match with my conscience.

In one fluid movement, Eddie was out of the truck and standing before me.

"Hi."

Looking into his dark blue eyes, a thought struck me. What if his own overtures of friendship was _his_ way of reeling _me_ in, so his family could make short work of the Fawkes vampires? Who was the bad guy in this equation?

"Ella?"

I shook my head, chasing out the ghosts. "Sorry. Spaced out for a minute there. It's been a weird couple of days."

"That it has." Eddie agreed wearily, and I believed it. He looked at me curiously for what felt like forever.

"You want to get out of here?" He asked tentatively, looking at me from beneath his long lashes.

"Edward Collins, what makes you think I'm that kind of girl?" I exclaimed jokingly. I hesitated. "Where do you suggest?"

Eddie just grinned at me.

Because nothing in Fawkes was particularly far away from anything else in Fawkes, we walked, chatting idly. Eddie lead me to a beautiful strand of ghost gums, and I could hear water gurgling somewhere in the background. It was beautiful.

It was also very secluded.

"This is amazing."

"I come here to think." Eddie was watching my reaction, hands in his pockets. His face was grim as I turned back to him. My own smile faded.

"So," I said archly. "You take a lot of girls behind the bushes?"

Eddie's answering smile was mysterious, and a little naughty. "Only the pretty ones." He confessed.

"You superficial bastard." I exclaimed. "I guess I shouldn't fear being molested, then."

"You're better looking than you give yourself credit for. If we walked into a room _together_, you would be the one people looked at first."

"Only because the entire female student body would be breathing a collective sigh of relief that you're not gay." I stuck my tongue out. He smiled helplessly and followed me further into the bush. I couldn't tell which one of us was being the idiot.

"I suppose." I began. "I suppose I still think of myself the way I used to be." I kicked out at a stone. "I used to be... ordinary, y'know? Now I'm-"

"Individual?" Eddie offered.

"I'm not fourteen, Eddie. I know that_ 'individual' _is just a nice way of saying _really frickin' weird_." My eyes narrowed. "And you know, you'd be right."

I watched as Eddie's body tensed, his eyes wary, suddenly regretting his idea to bring me here and not tell anyone about it.

I could smell his fear, and a bizarre thrill went up my spine.

"I realise now, I'm the world's best predator." I smiled then, showing perhaps too many teeth. I still couldn't understand why Eddie didn't run.

"Everything about me invites you in. My voice, my face, my body, subtly influencing your subconsciousness to go with me to somewhere in the shadows where there's no witnesses. Men." I laughed sourly. "I'm a walking aphrodisiac to you."

Eddie wasn't moving, and I despaired at the fact that he apparently cared so little for his own existence.

"You should run." Springing back on my heels, I jumped. With the ease of a seasoned gymnast, my hands curled around a overhanging branch which would have had to be the same width as my waist, and I ripped it from the ancient gum tree with a massive crack, before landing in a crouch. My own agility startled me.

"You'd probably get a little further than anyone else."

Spinning on the balls of my feet, I readied the branch javelin-like in my grip, before releasing the missile. It shattered against another great tree, which shook and trembled, its trunk somewhat battered and splintered.

My momentary rush of adrenaline gone, I stood staring at the dent in the tree. For some reason, tears crept into the corners of my eyes.

"You should run." I whispered.

"I don't know what I'm supposed to be running from." I knew he must have come up behind me, because I felt his breath on the back of my neck.

"You must be very unobservant."

"You could have left me to die, but you didn't."

"Maybe I just wanted to eat you later." I dismissed, folding my arms.

"You're different."

"I'm really not."

Eddie didn't say anything for a long time, but he didn't leave.

"When I was eight," He began softly. "Before I lived here, me and my parents were walking back to the car after going to see a movie. We were jumped from behind heading into the parking lot, and I saw my dad... I must have been too small for its taste or something, because it let me go." His voice cracked.

"I ran all the way to Carl and Esme's. The next day my mum walked into their house, only it wasn't my mum anymore." He heaved a massive sigh, his voice becoming even softer. "She tried to kill me, and Carl grabbed one of Esme's kitchen knives and..." Eddie trailed off, shuddering at memories that were still entirely still too fresh.

I turned to look into those amazing blue eyes. Eddie was hot, intelligent, and occasionally we shared a bit of harmless flirting, but I don't think I had any real feelings for him until that _exact _moment.

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because since meeting you, I don't know what to think anymore."

We'd somehow become closer without realising it. "I could accidentally kill you any time." I breathed.

"Of course, that's assuming that I didn't have the drop on you all along." Eddie's breath fanned my face. He smelled spicy. I could hear his blood singing to me, and it scared the hell out of me how much my instincts were screaming at me to take a bite out of his throat. I could see in Eddie's eyes that this was as much a test for _him _as it was for me.

Still, the fifteen-year-old virgin in me squealed with glee when he leaned in and kissed me.

Standing there, his arms around me, suddenly it was so much harder knowing that I had to betray him.


	6. Meet the Parents

"_You are so soft, so fragile. I have to mind my actions every moment that we're together so I don't hurt you. I could kill you quite easily, simply by accident. If for one second I wasn't paying enough attention, I could reach out to touch your face and crush your skull by mistake. You don't realise how incredibly breakable you are."_

* * *

I don't think either of us fully realised exactly what we were getting ourselves in for.

Once, after I nearly snapped his wrist, I realised that if I _really_ wanted to be with Eddie, vampire-me had to take a seat on the sidelines as I dialled back my strength and base impulses to a level where he could keep up with me. But Eddie, being male, flatly refused to admit whenever I was wearing him out. I think on some base level it irked him out being with a girl who was physically stronger than he was, without even realising it.

I didn't go back to the council. I knew that when they wanted me, they'd think of some way to find me. For a while, I thought about just leaving. Maybe convincing Eddie to come with me, and we could start over somewhere.

But I knew that Eddie would never leave his family behind when he felt that he was still needed.

And I also knew that no matter how much fun we were having right now, it wouldn't last. How could it? I was going to be seventeen for as long as I existed, and sooner or later I was going to realise that Eddie was aging before my eyes. Could I do that to myself? More importantly, could I do that to _him_?

I decided that at the moment it didn't matter.

I was sitting alone at a table in front of the town's pokey little bakery when the chair opposite me was pulled out.

"Hi." Alice Collins said cheerfully. "You mind?"

"No. Sure." I watched as she sank down into the chair, suddenly feeling positively goblin-like next to her perfect pixie proportions. She smiled at me, and I envied her ability to never let anything get her down.

"Alice." She offered her hand across the table.

"Ella."

"Nice to meet you." Alice's grin was cheeky, but her eyes were curiously deep and studied my face as if looking for something. Seemingly finding her confirmation in my features, she leant back in her chair, satisfied.

"I'm sorry, can I help you?" I was a little confused. Was this normal behaviour for her?

"I just saw you there and thought I should come over and introduce myself." One of Alice's eyebrows quirked. "Considering you're doing my brother and all."

I didn't think my blood circulation was strong enough to summon up a blush, but I did, and brilliantly.

"We're not – that is, we haven't-" I stammered. How do you explain to someone that you haven't slept with your super buff, hunky boyfriend yet because you're afraid you might hurt him?

"I know." Alice said casually, stealing a fragment of cake off my plate. "It's written all over your face. I just wanted to see what kind of reaction I'd get."

I frowned, but it was practically impossible to summon up any real anger against her. "Eddie... told you about me." I wasn't sure whether I should be unnerved or pleased.

"Not in so many words. Emmett caught him in a headlock and wouldn't let him go until he told us why he's been acting so weird lately." She let out a little chuckle. Then her smile faded. Alarm bells went off in my head, and my muscles tensed, ready to flee.

"But there's something he's not telling us. I've known Eddie long enough to know when something's wrong." Alice cocked her head to the side. I couldn't hold her stare, and averted my eyes.

"I'm sorry, Ella. I had to come over to talk to you, you see. I have..." She closed her eyes and opened them again after a moment. Her bubbly exterior and massive personality gave way to someone I didn't recognise, someone mournful and solemn.

"I have visions. And most of the time, they come true."

I sat staring at her, unsure of what to say. My first impulse was to call her crazy, but as a vampire, I really had no right to say anything was too ludicrous. "I still don't understand why you're telling me this." I finally said carefully, and it was true.

"Because I know what you are." Alice said softly. "I knew it because I saw you step of the bus months before you did. I saw your conflict and your desires. You _must_ be careful, Ella. Chose your friends carefully."

I thought of Mike and Jessie, who had gained my trust and then used me.

"Alice..." My voice cracked.

"No, listen to me. Yesterday, I had a vision. Eddie walked into Carl and Esme's house, only it wasn't Eddie anymore."

_Mum walked into Carl and Esme's house, only she wasn't my mum anymore._

"He was like you, but different. He was... so cold. Empty." Alice shivered slightly under the hot sun. "He was there to kill us." She said in a small voice.

"I still... don't understand..."

Alice reached across the table and grasped my hands. Her grip was stronger than I expected, and her eyes bored a hole through my skull. "Something big is going to happen." She said. "And it's heading straight for you, and everyone around you is going to be caught up in chaos." As she spoke, I noticed that her eyes seemed to slip out of focus. "He's coming."

"Who's coming?"

As soon as it had begun, Alice snapped back to reality. She smiled at me, and patted my hand in a consoling manner. "I have to go now." She said softly. "You're about to get an important phone call."

Alice left me staring at her back in confusion. Apparently Eddie wasn't the only one of the Collins family that was good at speaking in riddles and then leaving me hanging.

True to her words, five minutes after Alice left, my phone began to buzz in my pocket. I flipped it out and saw that it was Eddie's number. I rose an eyebrow, and connected the call.

"Hey, sweetie. After a booty call already?" I joked.

For a moment all I heard on the other end of the line was a woman talking. And then my man's voice came in, strangely hesitant. "Erm, hi, Ella."

"Are you okay?"

Suddenly, he was back. "Sorry, Esme's got my ear." He paused again, as the woman in the background began prodding him to do something again. "Listen, do you want to come around to my place? My parents want to meet you. Or rather," He corrected himself. "_Esme_ wants to meet you."

I thought of Emmett and the headlock. "Do you really think that's wise?" I asked carefully.

"Probably not, but _'wise'_ seems to have gone out the window right about now." He said wryly.

"Point." I said, and somehow I found myself meeting the parents.

It was only later that I began having serious doubts, and not just because of the whole daunting 'parent' thing, will they like me, won't they, blah, blah. Dr Carl Collins was a fairly seasoned vampire hunter. Problem: me.

I followed the instructions Eddie gave me, half wondering whether I had taken a wrong turning somewhere as the gaps between houses became further apart and the bush became more overgrown and tangled. I was starting to watch my fuel gauge with worry, when the ground evened out and the yellowed grass had a slightly more looked after hue. Finally I found a gravel drive, and trundled along it in the hope that the Collins' house would be at the end.

I'm not sure that I expected. Maybe that a family of vampire hunters would be living in an old fortified castle or a beat up old trailer park or something, but it wasn't this.

"Holy crap."

The Collins family house was three stories high, wood panelling and glass walls. A paved path led out to an overgrown garden, and an adjoining building housed several vehicles, three motorbikes and four quad bikes. I pulled up behind a sporty red convertible and climbed out, suddenly feeling incredibly self conscious as I plucked at the holes in my jeans.

I crunched up the gravel of the drive to the door. Stepping up to the two massive doors, I reached out for the doorbell.

Chimes tinkled somewhere inside the house and I scuffed my shoe on the step. It wasn't long before the doors were wrenched open and a woman was standing before me, a massive smile across her face.

"Oh my goodness, you're even prettier than I thought you would be." She exclaimed, before folding me in a hug. Her caramel-coloured hair smelled of flowers, and it wasn't hard with the enthusiasm I received to guess that this was Esme Collins.

She held me at arms length, and took me in all at once. Once again a suffered a mini attack of nerves. "I'm not, really." I managed to get out.

"Oh, but you are." Esme smiled. Seemingly only just remembering, she offered me her hand. "Esme Collins. Call me Esme."

"Ella." My rougher palm rubbed against her smooth skin. Esme ushered me inside, and my jaw hit the floor as I looked around. A massive staircase dominated one side of the room, and the ceilings had been removed, leaving bare the wooden support beams.

"All the others have taken their dirt bikes out the back." Esme said. I followed her through the house, rubbing at my forearm. I spied a grand piano, but Esme led me through a pair of French doors and onto a patio looking out onto the back garden, and beyond, a strip of land that I could hear the vague sounds of motors emanating from.

"Dr Collins dirt bikes," I said slowly, not sure I had heard correctly. Somehow the idea was more ludicrous than the image of Alice and the indecently beautiful Rosalie biking.

Esme looked like she didn't entirely agree with her husband's pastime, but she had reluctantly conceded that there were worst things he could be doing. "Tea?"

I wasn't a tea person, but I couldn't exactly refuse. "Sure."

Esme and I settled down on the outside furniture and sat there in silence for several minutes. And then she asked me the strangest question.

"Are you a good person, Ella?"

I choked on a scalding hot mouthful of tea. "I suppose... I like to think I am."

Esme gave a little nod, apparently pleased with my answer. "Then I'm glad he found you."

"Eddie?"

She carefully set her tea down. "He's not really my son, but I think of him as mine." Esme said softly. "Ever since his parents died, God rest their souls, I don't think he's ever been able to get properly close to anyone."

What was I supposed to say to that?

After a moment, figures appeared on the hill. I spied Alice, with one arm around Jasper's waist and the other flung around Eddie's neck. The boys were leading beat-up old farm bikes and the three of them were laughing, covered from head to toe in dust. Emmett came up behind, riding a blue quad bike, Rosalie clinging to his back, the blonde beauty looking terribly out of place in a flannel shirt and scuffed work boots. I found myself grinning as the five of them approached the patio, leaving the bikes beside the outbuildings.

Alice walked over and gave both Esme and myself quick hugs before perching on the edge of Jasper's chair. Jasper gave me a quick hello, and Rosalie nodded her head curtly, acknowledging my presence. Emmett, in contrast, gave me a big grin and a wink. With no free seats, Eddie sat on the arm of my chair, draping his arm around my neck to keep his balance.

"What did you do with Carl?" Esme asked her adoptive children shrewdly.

"I'm here." I heard the doctor's smooth, rich voice and he came trudging up through the farm gate. I hardly recognised him from his clean-cut image in the surgery with his blonde hair in disarray and mud streaked across his clothes.

"What happened to _you_?" Esme exclaimed, trying not to laugh.

Carl ran his hands through his blonde locks, pushing his hair back into some order. After a moment, he came over and gracefully sat down on the patio near his wife's feet. He had the air of someone who seemed older than he actually was. "Ella." He nodded, sidestepping Esme's question. "Good to see you again."

I had to think for a moment before recalling the morning that I saved Eddie from being crushed. The accident and trip to the hospital seemed so long ago now. "You too, Dr Collins."

"Carl."

"Carl." I smiled. Emmett reached across and casually patted my knee. "Nice to meet you, girl. We were starting to think that Eddie made you up."

"Hardly." I smirked. "His imagination isn't that good."

Rosalie smirked behind her hand, and Emmett laughed uproariously. Eddie tugged at a strand of hair that had fallen from my casual up-do, but when I looked up, his eyes were sparkling.

And so my meeting with the Collins family somehow passed without bloodshed.

More than once I caught Carl Collins eyes on me, looking at me as though I reminded him of someone. I caught him staring once or twice, and did my best to divert my unusual-coloured eyes as quickly as possible. But all in all, it was rather nice. My mother was a drunk and my father didn't even know I existed until four years ago, so this family setting was all new to me.

There was another surprise in store for me when Esme announced that Eddie was going to play the piano for us. I sat, hunkered down in a ball at the foot of the stairs, and watched as his fingers flew across the keys, a foreign melody washing over me, temporarily taking away all my troubles. The beautiful melody made me see something _so _clearly.

Eddie was adaptive, versatile, strong and stunning, but also so terribly, awfully_ fragile_.

I sat with my chin on my hand, my mouth open slightly as I finally realised what I had to do, with the Collins' and the council and the looming Fawkes war. As soon as Eddie had finished his set, while everyone else was talking, I reached out to grab his wrist.

"Outside. Now."

Eddie raised an eyebrow but had enough sense not to reply with a flippant remark as I dragged him back out onto the patio, closing the French doors behind us.

"What is it?" He reached out to take my arms, but didn't actually touch me. Something in my frantic stare aroused his own worry.

"I'm going to ask you some questions, and I need you to answer them _absolutely _truthfully." I said sternly.

"Oh...kay." He said slowly.

I took his hand in mine. I knew my grip was almost painful, but I wanted his full attention. "Why did you move to Fawkes?"

Eddie looked at me, apparently taken aback by the one simple question.

"Ella-"

"And don't you _dare _say it was because of lower house prices or your dad's work or some other bullshit. I want the _truth_." I wished so much to be able to read what he was thinking, but over the years Eddie had become adept at hiding his _true _self behind a smokescreen that I couldn't have penetrated if I tried.

"We... ah..." He trailed off and raked a hand through his dark hair, trying to look at anything besides me. Finally he sighed in defeat. "We came here two years ago." Eddie began, speaking in a hushed whisper. "Carl... got a tip-off from one of his old college buddies."

"About what?"

"The Fawkes disappearances, the ones that started about two years ago. You've bound to have seen the notices in the paper." Eddie said. I nodded. "There had been a few... a few vampire hunters here before us. They must have found something, because none of them were... ever seen again.

"So Carl and Esme asked us for our own opinions on the subject and we just all uprooted here, looking for the source. That's why we've been out of school so much, because Carl sort of inherited all the previous hunters' notes and we've been going over old ground, trying to pick up the scent, so to speak."

"Have you found anything?"

"Ella, what's with the questions?"

I sighed, and looked down at my sneakers. "Not that long ago, I was made to meet the vampires of Fawkes." I said. "They wanted me to get close to you, to all of you, so they could kill you. They think that you're the ones responsible for the missing people."

Eddie looked confused. "But that makes no sense." He finally said slowly. "Everything leads to the _vampires_ killing innocent people."

"But they're convinced that you guys are hunting _them_, and the missing people _are_ _vampires_." And the age-old peace treaty that had held sway in Fawkes for so long had fallen off the knife's edge.

"Something's not right here." Eddie said, his brow furrowed in thought.

The two of us stood in silence for a moment, and then I suddenly remembered something.

"Toby Harker!" I exclaimed.

"What?"

I looked into his eyes. "There was a third faction in the treaty."

Understanding dawned on Eddie's face. "The original inhabitants of the land."

"Crap."

"My sentiments exactly." The two of us turned back toward the patio doors.

"We can't do this alone, Ed." I said, almost desperately.

"I know, babe." Eddie sighed, knowing what was coming next. He took my hand firmly in his as we walked back through the doors. All conversation died off as the Collins' spotted our dark expressions.

"Everyone, there's something I have to say to you all." My voice was scratchy and I didn't sound like myself at all, but I carried on.

"My name is Ella Swain." I said.

"And I'm a vampire."


	7. You've Got to be Kidding Me

_You are worth it._

* * *

For a fraction of a second, everyone was frozen, Alice and Jasper on the stairs, Rosalie with her arms around Emmett's neck, Esme and Carl caught mid-kiss.

Then all hell broke loose.

Emmett lurched in front of Rosalie protectively, seeming to puff himself up like a threatened animal. Rosalie herself seized a pair of iron tongs from the cold fireplace and tossed the iron poker across to Carl, who caught it deftly. Esme backed toward a locker in under the stairs, which I instinctively knew contained weapons of some sort. Upstairs, only Alice's restraining grip prevented Jasper from flying down the stairs to protect his adopted family.

Eddie shoved me backwards, and I stumbled out through the doors. I knew that I could without a doubt spring off the patio and be cleanly out of sight before the Collins' even realised it, but it was time to stop running.

Now all I had to do was convince a family of vampire hunters that this vampire was trying to save their lives.

I heard a thump, and looked back to see that Carl and Jasper had tackled Eddie to the ground, instincts telling them that there was only one reason why he would have purposely brought a vampire into the house. I saw knives emerging, and pushed my way back inside.

"Stop it!" I tried to shout. "I need to talk to you!"

And that's when Emmett took a swing at me with Carl's poker.

Before I even realised I was moving, I spun around and caught the poker just before it would have smashed into my face. A massive jolt raced up through my wrist and through my arm, but I ignored it and levelled the poker under Emmett's chin, slamming him back into the bookcase. Various priceless volumes tumbled down on our heads and for a moment Emmett actually looked like he might have been afraid.

That was when I stopped and dropped the poker, wondering what the hell I was doing. I took Eddie's brother by the collar and pushed him back toward his family.

"I'm not here to kill you." I said. "Well, technically..." I trailed off, my eyes finding Eddie laid out on the floor, Jasper kneeling on his chest. "Get off him." I said. "He's... innocent."

"Innocent of what?" Rosalie was the first to cut in, this time not bothering to conceal her contempt for me. "Fraternising with the enemy? Oh, wait... that's why you're here in the first place."

I met her icy eyes unflinchingly. "You know, right now I'm actually trying to save your lives." I spat. "And it'd be so much easier if you _didn't _decide to be a bitch."

For a fraction of a second, she actually took taken aback.

"How do we know that?" Carl asked in his always-amazingly-calm voice. "How do any of us know that once we turn our backs on you, you won't kill us?"

"If I was going to kill you, I would have done it months before." I replied curtly. "I figured out what you were pretty much the same time Eddie figured out what I was."

Emmett looked like he could have killed Eddie as Jasper carefully let him get up. "And you still went and did her anyway? You're sick, man. I'm pretty sure that's illegal."

On his hands and knees, Eddie couldn't meet anyone's eyes. Not even mine. "She's... different." He said in a hoarse whisper. "She feels. She has real emotions for people."

"Damn it, Edward. She got close to you so she could get close to the family. Don't you see that?" Carl exploded at his adopted son.

"When I was seventeen, I got drunk at this party." I said softly. "And I got bit. Whoever it was just pissed off and left me there. The next day I thought I was just hung over. And then I suddenly had all this strength and speed and stuff that freaked me out, so I went to the doctor. I only started to figure out what happened when he said he couldn't find a heartbeat." I met Carl's eyes and held his stare.

"I'm a vampire. But I don't know how to _be_ a vampire."

"I think we should take a chance, Carl." Esme said into the silence.

Finally Carl's shoulders dropped in defeat. "Of course." He mumbled. "It's just been so long, I-" He looked at me.

"Since taking Eddie in, I have never had a reason not to slay a vampire." He said.

"Yes, sir. I understand that."

"You risk your very like coming here. Why?"

"Because I'm not a murderer." I said simply.

Carl waved a hand, inviting me to take a seat on the lounge. In a moment Eddie sat down beside me.

"Is there anywhere you can go that's better fortified than this?" I asked carefully. "Some place you can defend fully?"

"Why?"

"The vampires are coming." I sighed. "They think you're responsible for the Fawkes disappearances and they want... to get rid of you. I think I can stop what's going on, but I don't know when they're planning to attack, and I wanted to make sure you were all still safe when I got back."

"You can't go alone!" Eddie interrupted. "It's too dangerous. I'll come with you."

I looked into his handsome, tired face. "You know that's not practical. I'm sorry, but taking you as well would only slow me down."

"Taking him where?" It was the first time I had heard Jasper speak, and he was watching me shrewdly.

"To find the skinwalkers." I said.

The family retreated to the basement, arming themselves to the teeth. Finally I stood in the deserted lounge. I hoped Eddie would keep his head down. And I hoped my dad had enough brains to stay out of it all. And I hoped my suspicions were right and that I'd still be alive to see the morning.

I'd never given much thought to how I would die, though in the last few months I had more than enough reason to. I suppose it was good, offering yourself in the place of someone who was important to you.

I only hoped that counted wherever I was ultimately headed.

There were footsteps behind me. I immediately knew it was Eddie because of his spicy smell.

"You shouldn't be up here." I warned.

"No." He agreed. "You're going to kill yourself."

"We'll see." I turned to him. It didn't seem fair that I only had a few months to really live before it all went to crap.

"I'm going with you." He said firmly.

"No, you're not."

"I know where you're going. I'll just follow you anyway."

"You are _insufferable_." My brows knitted together.

"You know me."

"Okay, then." I said challengingly. "Let's see if you can keep up."

I barely glanced at my car as I strode past it, knowing I wouldn't need it. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Eddie disdain his truck for Rosalie's red convertible. As I hit the bush at the edge of the Collins' land, I began to run. I heard the gunning of the convertible's engine as it flew out of the garage.

Before I was bitten, I wouldn't have won any marathons anytime soon, but now I flew. My feet found the smallest purchase in the rocks and the dirt and propelled me on at ever increasing speeds. I knew if I really bothered to think about what I was doing, I'd probably smack into a tree.

I reached the reservation lands sooner than I anticipated, and slowed myself down a little at a time so I wouldn't be thrown completely off-balance. Massive gum trees towered high above me, blocking out the sun, and the undergrowth had grown together so completely that it was practically the one plant. The place looked like it hadn't changed since the native tribes had first settled there.

For all I knew, it hadn't.

Eddie was panting as he caught up to me. He must have ditched Rosalie's car at the edge of the bush and run to meet me. I put my finger to my lips and pressed my palms against the smooth bark of one of the trees as I made out the sounds of a voice, getting closer and closer. I shrunk into the shadows, embracing my vampire side. I felt Eddie's hand in the small of my back.

The young Jack Black was walking along the path, practically shouting into his phone something about bears. I bent my knees and sprung down into his path.

"Hi, Jack."

He stared at me a minute before excusing himself to the person on the other end, and hanging up. Sometime about the way his eyes darted forward and back told me that I was definitely on the right track here. He knew something.

"Hi, Ella." He said cautiously. He took a step backwards, and smacked against Eddie's chest.

"Hello, Jack."

Jack made a strangled sound as he looked between the both of us. I smiled my most predatory smile and sauntered down the path toward him. "How're you doing?" Despite myself, I felt a bit better knowing Eddie had my back.

"Fine." Jack gripped his school backpack like it was a shield.

"You know what I've just realised, Jack?"

"What?"

"I've realised that I've been played a fool since coming into town." I said flatly. "By myself, then by the Fawkes vampires, and then by the Collins' family. But that's not all. You see, all of us have been played by someone else. Someone who's been here even longer than we have, someone who wanted us _all_ off their lands, for good."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Like _hell_!" I didn't mean to shout, but it felt like everything that had happened in the months I'd been in Fawkes was crumbling around me. "Don't mess with me, Jack. I'm not in the mood. _Someone's _been stirring trouble between my vampire buddies and vampire hunter buddies, and I think we all know who that somebody is. The skinwalkers are trying to force everybody out of town, aren't they? Maybe you call them something different, like _werewolves_."

Jack seemed taken aback as I recalled the story he had told me in the vain hope he could creep me out.

"You're nuts."

I lunged forwards, my forearm pinning him back against a tree. "Do you think I'm not serious? Good people are going to die. Speak, or I'll swear to God, I'll go all vampire on your ass."

Jack stared into my face, temporarily shocked into paralysis.

"Let him go, Ella." Eddie said to me sternly. I looked down and released him almost immediately; there was a dent in the tree from how hard I had hit him. I gritted my teeth.

Jack rubbed his chest, knowing that we meant business.

"This guy wandered onto the reserve a couple of years ago." He said haltingly. "He made a bargain with the elders so he could stay on our land."

"What was the bargain?" Eddie said sharply.

"He told the elders that he could get every person who was beyond the clan off our land. He fabricated missing persons' reports and played each of you off against each other." Jack said.

"In exchange for what?"

"In exchange for _you._" His eyes met mine.

I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't that. Jack spun on the heels of his boots and raked his hands through his hair.

"I know it's wrong!" He said. "It's murder whichever way you dress it, but the elders are _obsessed _with getting Fawkes to themselves, even though it doesn't matter. Me and my friends on the reserve, we aren't going to _be _in Fawkes when we graduate, so it's all a pointless waste."

"Why didn't you tell anyone?"

"I did! But do you think the elders listen to me? I'm still just a kid."

My eyes narrowed. "Why don't you speak up to someone who'll take notice?"

"Huh?"

"Will you?" I prodded.

Jack nodded.

"Okay." I said.

"What are you going to do?" Eddie asked.

"I'm going to the vampire council. I'll tell them the truth, and then I'll tell them that there's a member of the skinwalker tribe willing to back up my story." I said firmly. "Jack, go home and stay safe. Eddie, explain to your family and make sure they're okay."

He didn't like it, but he nodded.

"Love ya," I whispered.

I streaked back to the empty primary school. The doors were locked as it was a Saturday, but I punched the lock as hard as I could and it gave way. I pushed my way through the double doors into the assembly hall, hoping that Eddie and his family would have enough sense to keep their heads down.

"It's Ella!" I shouted to the empty room. "Spencer! Inez! Is anyone here?"

I slowly walked around in a large circle. Somewhere, a tap was dripping.

_Drip, drip, drip._ Suddenly I got the feeling you get when watching a movie and the helpless blonde is about to get savagely murdered. I ran my tongue over my teeth, not entirely sure how much help they'd be to me in a fight, and not sure I wanted to try them out anyway.

"Hello, Ella."

I jumped and whirled around. "Christ, Spencer!" I exploded. "Don't _do _that whole creeping-in-the-shadows thing. You'll give someone a heart attack."

He approached me with slow, measured steps that made it seem like he was almost gliding over the floor.

"Are you okay?" I asked cautiously. Dude was creeping me out, and I don't get creeped out easily.

"Everything's fine."

"Right." I said slowly. "Anyway, turns out we don't have to wipes out the Collins'. It's all just a stupid ploy to get everyone off skinwalker land by some crazy-ass vampire, and - Oh my God, it's you."

I made a break for it then, but Spencer was older than me and better practised. He seized my wrist before I was really aware that he had moved at all, and he spun me around in a circle and threw me against the wall.

I smacked into the bricks.

It was a moment before my head stopped ringing. The bricks were crumbled into dust with the force that I had hit them.

"You don't have to do this, Ella. All I want to do is be with you."

"Sorry, Spence. I prefer men that look like they _didn't _die in the Renaissance period." I growled. He raised a white, withered finger.

"First of all, my name is _James _Spencer Harrington." I stared at him, wondering if I should recognise him now. "You smell good, firecracker."

I was suddenly frozen to the spot, remembering that damn party when I was seventeen.

There was this one young guy who was all over me all night. He wasn't really my type, but I knew if I worked it right, I could get free drinks for me and my friends all night.

_You smell good, firecracker._ He'd slurred in my ear.

Spencer, James, whatever the hell his name was plucked at the wrinkles around his sunken eyes. "Sorry about the change in decor." He said absently. "Had some bad blood. There were - complications."

My face twisted. "You prick." I spat. "You made me... you made me-"

"I made you better!" Spencer insisted. "Faster, stronger. Better."

"You stole my life from me!"

"Was it really that much of a life?"

"Because of you, the chance to _make _my life better was taken away from me!" I screamed. "I wanted to grow up, to get a job and to get married. I wanted a house and a dog and the two-point-five kids, but you _took that all away from me_!"

He spread his arms wide, trying to appeal to me. "You're here because of _me_. You can't deny who you are, Ella. I made you!"

"I'm here for my friends." I said softly. "I'm here _because _of my friends."

"Vampires don't have friends." He scoffed. "They have _food_."

"Then I guess I'm something new."

That was when the crossbow bolt thudded into his back, knocking him onto his knees. I looked toward the doors, startled.

Eddie and Jack were standing just inside the hall, and both of them were armed.

"Come on, Ella!" Jack shouted. Eyes wide, I took a step toward them.

I cold hand curled around my ankle.

"Ah!"

Spencer had risen to a crouch, pulling me back, his teeth bared in a grimace of hate. Jack grabbed my arms as Eddie unsheathed the machete he was carrying, his face determined as he raised it above the vampire's head.

When I noticed Spencer had changed his position, it was too late.

"Eddie, no!"

Jack and I stumbled back as Spencer sprang back to his feet, slamming Eddie back into the wall, one hand around his throat. He seized Eddie's arm and began bending it back at him, the tip of the machete shy of carving out an eyeball. Spencer lent forward and took a long whiff of his throat.

"I smell my girl on you," He hissed. Eddie's eyes were glassy, slowly strangling to death.

"Let him go, Spencer." I said warningly.

"You were with a _human_?" He was enraged.

"I said, let him _go_!" I lurched forward, hitting Jack's hands away. My hands curled around the crossbow bolt in Spencer's back, and with all the strength I could muster, I forced it up through his chest. I wasn't sure whether a stake through the heart would actually kill him, but I was certainly going to try.

My hands were covered in blood. I didn't realise that it wasn't all Spencer's until the body fell out of the way.

Eddie was leaning against the wall, hands over a bloody hole in his chest.

"No."

I caught him as he fell, leaving a sticky red smear down the wall. I felt one of his hands gently on the back of my neck as he breathed something that might have been my name.

"_No!_"

I stared down at him, shocked. This wasn't right! This wasn't how it was supposed to end!

I closed my eyes. There had to be something I could do.

"Ella?" Jack asked. My eyes snapped open with a cold determination.

Jack watched in a morbid fascination as I bit into my own palm, ignoring the searing pain it caused, until dark blood welled up thickly in the wound.

"What the _hell_ are you doing?"

"Vampires are supposed to be immortal, right?" I said. "I think I can afford to give up some immortality."

I didn't know how much longer he would live, so I placed my hand flat against his chest, my blood mingling with his. After a moment, I smeared some of my blood on his bottom lip.

"Come on, babe. You don't get to give up on me now." It was a good thing I really didn't need oxygen, because I _did_ forget to breathe for a few terse minutes there. Finally, Eddie coughed and jerked in my arms.

"Am I dead yet?" He croaked.

* * *

I didn't know until I spoke to Inez later that what I'd done had long-reaching effects for Eddie, ones I wasn't entirely sure he'd be able to handle by himself.

"What did you say?" He whispered as Inez sipped a cup of Esme's tea. "I'm part_ vampire_?"

Inez put her cup down. "In the strictest sense, yes. Our kind possesses strong regenerative abilities, however, they are _that_ strong that if passed along to lesser beings, our blood will very literally rewrite that creature's own mortality."

"So I can't _die_?"

"You will eventually, I expect." Inez said absently, smoothing her dress over her knees. "You weren't _bitten_, after all."

"When?"

"It could be a hundred years from now, or it could be a thousand. I don't tell the future, boy."

Alice pursed her lips, but stayed silent.

Eddie stared down at the floor. A muscle twitched in his eyelid, and I knew that his utter revulsion for vampires was battling his feelings for me and what he now was.

I refused to apologise, because if I hadn't done what I did, he would have died on the floor of the school assembly hall.

"Inez," Esme interrupted smoothly. "Perhaps you would like to see the guest room now?"

"Of course."

Gracefully the little girl followed Esme up the stairs and out of sight. I could hear the rest of the unseen Collins family slip away. Eddie was still looking down at the floor.

"I'm a freak." He finally muttered.

I reached for his hand, and he didn't shy away from my touch.

"But not the only freak."

.

..

...

....

.....

....

...

..

.

**Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight and don't pretend to.**

**AN: I know I should be working on other stories, but I actually really enjoyed this. So much that I've already got an outline for a potential sequel, **_**Breaking Down**_**, with Eddie, Ella, Volturi, and mysterious demon babies.**

**Thanks for reading.**


End file.
